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Chapter 36: Wake Up and You Are It

“That is your problem. You have passed all other barriers, but now this last barrier is the most difficult because you have staked everything on her. So do as I say: you sit in meditation, close your eyes, and when you see the mother Kali arising near your third eye - which is going to happen..”

He said, “Yes, it happens. Whenever I close my eyes she is there.”

So he said, “That’s good. That is the moment.this time you are not to cut your head; take the sword and cut the mother goddess in two pieces.”

Ramakrishna said, “My God, that is very difficult! I cannot hurt her - and you are telling me to kill her!”

But the man said, “Unless you do it, you will never attain. You try it and see.”

He would close his eyes, tears would flow from his eyes, and there was great joy on his face, and radiance. He would open his eyes, and the master would ask, and he would say, “Yes, I saw her, but I forgot all about killing her - she is so beautiful, and the attachment is so long.as long as I can remember.” He was very small when he became the priest. Two or three times he tried.

The master said, “This is the last time. If you cannot do it, then I will do it. I have brought this piece of glass. When I see that tears have started flowing from your eyes I will know that you are seeing the mother goddess. I will cut your forehead with the sharp piece of glass to remind you that this is the time: you do the same, cut her in two pieces. It is just your idea - there is nobody else. It is only a hypothesis.”

The master had to cut his forehead, and the mark remained for his whole life. Blood started flowing over his face, but deep inside he managed to gather courage and cut the mother goddess in two pieces. And as she fell in two pieces, it was as if a door had opened and the whole universe was his.

It took six days for him to come back. The first words that he uttered when he came back are immensely important. He said, “The last barrier has fallen.”

Any device can become a barrier too. It may help you to get rid of other things, but finally you have to get rid of it - and that may be a difficult thing. It was so difficult for Ramakrishna. And that was the last day; never again did he go into the temple. Afterwards he lived three, four years; he simply forgot all about Kali.

But there are devices which will not create such a trouble, and there are devices which will fall automatically. The moment when you are reaching to the climax of your being they will simply fall down.

I call a master the great master, the perfect master, who creates devices which are going to fall on their own accord when the moment has come for the person to experience the ultimate. Other devices are created by smaller people. Perhaps they don’t know that these devices can become attachments themselves.

So everything I say is a device. My speaking to you is a device so that you can just be here - your mind is engaged, listening to me, and something invisible can go on transpiring between me and your hearts. That’s the real thing.